Friday, February 24, 2012

Movie Review: Goon

There are plenty of classic sports movies. Rudy, Field of Dreams,
Hoosiers and Rocky are some of the best of all-time. When it comes to hockey
movies, none have been very successful. Perhaps the hockey movie with the
highest accolades is Miracle, but the best “hockey” movie ever made is Slapshot.
The biggest challenge in making a hockey movie is the audience; do you make it
for hockey fans, or movie fans?

Goonis
a screen adaptation from the book Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey
into Minor League Hockey by Adam Frattasio and directed by Michael Dowse. It is
based on the real life experiences of Doug Smith
as he begins in the movie as a bar bouncer. The film follows as he discovers
hiscalling as a hockey enforcer. Seann William Scott stars as
Doug Glatt, an overly polite tough guy who beats the odds and defies his families’
ideals to live his dream as a professional hockey player.

While
not everyone is a hockey fan, most people have a dream of what they want to do
with their life and can relate to the desire to “live the dream”. Goon is the
story of a man, who was seeking for his purpose in life. His father and brother
are doctors and his best friend (played by Jay Baruchel) has a hockey show.
While at a local game with his friend, Doug suddenly finds himself beating the
crap of one of the visiting teams’ players in the stands. The home town team
Coach takes notice and gives Doug a tryout with the team. It is not soon after
that Doug finds his worth in life as he begins to belong to a team.

Goon
is a tribute to hockey that hockey purists will easily identify with. The movie
was filmed in Manitoba Canada and has plenty of Canadian content. The story
unfolds when Doug makes it to a minor hockey team in Halifax and is
full of the crude locker room banter and shenanigans that make us play and love
the game. The film is full of subtle hockey nuances such as not stepping on the
team logo in the locker room to congratulating your opponent after a good
fight.

As
a hockey fan and a movie fan, I loved Goon. I got it. Most non-hockey fans will
appreciate the movie however. In an interview with Puck Life magazine, Jay Baruchel who
co-wrote the movie said “One of the decisions we had to make was to make Goon
for somebody or make it for everybody and we felt if we made it for everybody
we would really be making it for nobody. If we make it for a specific audience
we risk alienating other people but at least we’re making it for someone.”

If
you are a hockey fan, you will love this movie. Like Slapshot and Youngblood
before it, Goon embraces the game of hockey. It was made by people who love
hockey for people who love hockey. This movie has the "stuff".